The town board of Brandon has recently passed a 6-month moratorium to stop the rush to develop Brandon into an industrial turbine factory town with the construction of 67 massive 400-feet high wind turbines towering above our mountain ridges.
Many of the residents of Brandon are very concerned that the health and safety of our families, our property market values, and our peaceful lifestyle are being seriously threatened. The effects of prolonged exposure to low frequency noise and infrasound are grim: cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, and renal pathology and systems are called vibro-acoustic disease.
According to recent medical research, blade shadow flicker and the strobing reflection of sunlight can cause seizures, headaches, migraines, loss of balance, nausea, sleeplessness, stress, anxiety, depression, and disorientation to those living a mile or more from the turbines' cacophony.
The Department of Trade and Industry and others have warned that the turbines carry the risk of electrocution, that centrifugal force can throw shards of ice (and even the blades themselves) up to 1600 feet, and that the turbines each contain 200 gallons of combustible fluids which when ignited from lightning, or over-heating, and carried by high winds can inflame hundred of acres of virgin surrounding forest lands.
The massive 100 tons of slicing blades and the nacelle's internal oil-bathed gears, generators, computers, pumps, and motors, sit perched on top of a 250-foot high pylon that continually swivels, shakes, and vibrates as it rotates into the wind. Blinding strobe lights flash day and night and are visible for 40 miles.
The cacophony of noises and lights scare away virtually all wild life such as deer, moose, elk, rabbits, turkey, black bears--all except the wild dogs and wolves that feed on the abundant bird kill lying at the turbine bases. Thousands of hawks, eagles, falcons, owls, bats, ducks, geese, songbirds, swans, and cranes are destroyed by these cuisinarts-in-the-air. In addition the massive 130-foot long rotating blades chop and reflect radar beams, microwaves, and cell phone and TV transmissions.
Industrial wind factories destroy serene mountain vistas and the market values of nearby properties for recreation, hunting, camping, hiking, snowmobile riding, and any future development. Real estate sales people know that once prospects realize that a property is in the vicinity of wind turbines, the potential buyer won't even look at it.
Landowners that have leased their land to the wind turbine promoters are reduced to being little more than caretakers for the wind factories' massive machines and their privileges and rights stop where their neighbor's rights start. Non-leasing property owners have a bundle of rights which include the right of quiet enjoyment from an encroachment or unauthorized trespass of loud noise, bright lights, flying shards of ice, interference with TV and cell phone reception, strobe flicker, and all the other hurtful health and safety issues.
"But we now have a situation where speculators are staking claim to some of our most scenic areas and erecting these monstrosities that produce little energy and are made possible only by a tax credit."--Rep. Alan Mollohan, US Congressman.
"At a time when America needs large amounts of low-cost reliable power, wind produces puny amounts of high-cost unreliable power...Clearly there are more sensible ways to provide clean energy than spending $3.7 billion of taxpayers' moneyto destroy the American landscape... Wholesale destruction of the American landscape is not an incidental concern."--Senator Lamar Alexander in an address to Congress, 13 May 2005.
No comments:
Post a Comment